Daniel Freedman, 71; Studied LSD and Brain

Published: June 7, 1993

LOS ANGELES, June 6—
Dr. Daniel X. Freedman, a psychiatrist and pharmacologist who studied LSD and the use of drugs to treat mental illness, died of a stroke Wednesday. He was 71.

Dr. Freedman, a former president of the American Psychiatric Association, died in his sleep, said Dan Gordon, a spokesman for the University of California at Los Angeles, where Dr. Freedman had worked since 1983.

In the 1950's, Dr. Freedman was the first to show the link between drugs like LSD, which causes vivid hallucinations, and the brain hormone serotonin. Both substances are similar and act on the same chemical receptors in the brain.

By studying how LSD causes hallucinations, scientists might find "how the brain works in mental disorders in which there is heightened perception," particularly schizophrenia and psychosis, Dr. Freedman told The Associated Press in a 1991 interview.

A native of Crawfordsville, Ind., Dr. Freedman was a pioneer in psychopharmacology, the study of how drugs affect the brain and behavior. He also was among the first researchers to describe how stress affects the brain, and how the brain plays a role in allergy symptoms.

Dr. Freedman was a professor at Yale University and was named chairman of the department of psychiatry in 1965. He then worked at the University of Chicago from 1966 to 1983, and became the Judson Braun Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at U.C.L.A. in 1984. He wrote more than 200 articles and 15 books, and was the president of the American Psychiatric Association in 1982.